Riot Games recently rolled out an updated griefing detection and notification system in League of Legends aimed at cracking down on players who intentionally ruin games. The system was built to catch stuff like intentional feeding, trolling, and going AFK, and now lets you know if someone you reported actually gets in trouble.
But the new setup isn’t living up to the hype. Tons of players say they’re getting notifications that someone’s been punished—except those same players just keep diving back into ranked matches like nothing happened. And the punishments themselves? Usually just a 1- or 5-minute wait thanks to “leaverbuster,” which doesn’t do much to keep repeat offenders out.
The notification system is making things even more confusing. Some people get alerts about punishments for players they never reported or even played with. Others, meanwhile, watch obvious griefing—like teammates dying on purpose, selling all their stuff, running down lanes, or refusing to play—go unnoticed and unpunished.
“I had a Lulu who died once, sold all their items completely unprovoked, bought Swifties and just ran down mid repeatedly,” one player said. That time, they got a penalty notification, but tons of similar griefers get off scot-free.
There are also complaints about false positives. Someone might get hit with a behavioral warning for what they think is normal (or even good!) gameplay. One player mentioned they were punished for “going AFK” when their score was 7-5, and they only stepped away because the enemy was already taking their nexus.
This update is just the latest in Riot’s long fight against League’s well-known toxicity issues. Past attempts included staff looking over reports, the old “Tribunal” system where the community doled out justice, and a bunch of different automated systems. The big headache has always been telling the difference between someone ruining games on purpose and someone just having a rough match—especially with those sneaky players who throw subtly.
What’s really bugging people is there’s still no LP (League Points) compensation for players who get stuck with griefers. Riot had teased this as a future update for proven sabotage, but so far there’s nothing—turns out, LP refunds still only happen if someone’s caught cheating.
Placebo punishments
Now, a lot of players say these punishment notifications are just for show, calling them “placebo punishments” that look good but don’t actually deal with the problem. The system is especially bad at catching “soft inting”—that stealthy kind of griefing where someone’s pretending to play badly on purpose.
Riot, for their part, keeps insisting their automated systems are always getting better. They say griefing detection is based on how people act and their report history, and that they’re still improving how it all works.
